Vehicles operating in an autonomous mode (e.g., driverless) can relieve occupants, especially the driver, from some driving-related responsibilities. When operating in an autonomous mode, the vehicle can navigate to various locations using onboard sensors, allowing the vehicle to travel with minimal human interaction or in some cases without any passengers.
Motion planning and control are critical operations in autonomous driving. However, conventional motion planning operations estimate the difficulty of completing a given path mainly from its curvature and speed, without considering the differences in features for different types of vehicles. Same motion planning and control is applied to all types of vehicles, which may not be accurate and smooth under some circumstances.
In addition, speed control is a critical step in autonomous driving. From time to time, a unit gain of the vehicle throttle and brake units needs to be calibrated and adjusted under different circumstances (e.g., road condition, weather condition, vehicle weight). However, the behaviors of autonomous driving vehicles vary from vehicle to vehicle and from time to time. It is difficult and time consuming to collect throttle and brake behavioral information and determine the unit gain.